There are a wide variety of strain relief devices for protecting the termination points between the electrical wires of an electrical cable and the contacts of an electrical connector by relieving the strain which might be applied on the composite electrical cable. Such devices can range from ordinary clamp members used with coaxial cables to sophisticated mechanisms formed integral with a complicated connector structure.
There are various applications where an electrical wiring harness (i.e. a multi-connector prewired system) is used in an apparatus for establishing its desired electrical circuitry network. One such application is in the area of integrated drive generators which include a housing structure within which the generator components, along with the electrical harness, are contained. The harness includes a plurality of terminating connectors which are "slipped through" the housing so that terminating ends of the connectors are exposed on the outside of the housing for connection to appropriate mating connectors. In other words, the entire electrical harness is disposed within the housing, with only the mating connector ends of the connectors exposed through holes in the housing.
With such integrated drive generators, the housing usually is constructed of a main input housing within which the major components of the generator are secured, along with a housing cover, such as an end cover secured and sealed to the main input housing. The electrical harness is disposed within the housing with some of the electrical connectors slipped through holes in the main housing and other of the harness connectors slipped through holes in the housing cover.
During assembly, there are little or no problems involved in securing the harness connectors through and to the holes in the main generator housing while the assembly is in open condition. The electrical cables are appropriately secured and when in place there is little or no movement of the electrical cables relative to their connectors or the main input housing itself. Consequently, there is very little chance for the connections between the wire ends of the cables and the contacts of the connectors being disturbed.
However, a different situation arises where one or more of the connectors must be slipped through and secured to a hole in the housing cover. This must be done prior to assembling the housing cover to the main input housing. Consequently, a length of the harness cable or wiring usually "hangs loose" from the inside of the housing cover when the respective connector is secured in place. This is necessary because, by the mere nature of such an assembly procedure, internal access for clamping and retaining the last few inches of the wiring harness is not possible once the housing portions are assembled. Therefore, the electrical cable as well as the wiring to the connector contacts, are allowed to move both during assembly and operation.
This relative movement results in broken wires at the solder joint connections between the wires and the contacts due to inadequately retained lead wires which are allowed to move during assembly and operation. This invention is directed to solving such problems and satisfying the need for an improved strain relief device particularly adapted for slip-through type electrical connector arrangements of the character described